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Originally Posted by the urban politician
^ When did the politicians ask the public whether or not to make payments into the pensions? I don't recall hearing about that.
First of all, politicians don't need to ask the public for every decision that they make. That's the whole idea about living in a Republic with elected officials.
Secondly, I'm betting that for the above reasons, politicians didn't ask the public this question. After all, we put them in office to make decisions in the State's interests--ideally. *
And they obviously made the wrong one.
At some point, it's okay to blame the politicians for being shitty. I understand that we get the Government that we vote for, but that doesn't mean that the officials we vote for are immune from any criticism, especially when we are talking about machine politics where people like Madigan get to have outsized power for decades.
* Notice I said "State's interest". Because we don't have term limits, too many politicians instead make decisions in their own interest, meaning to keep getting votes and stay in power. And that's bad for all of us.
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It’s not like these politicians have been hiding their plans. The Edgar ramp (Republican Governor) was public knowledge, Blago (Dem Governor) skipping pension payments and budget gimmicks were public knowledge. The people of Illinois voted for these can-kicking policies at the state level. Quinn was honest about the financial issues and got ousted by Rauner. Who was Governor for 4 years and never presented a plan to truly balance the budget or solve the pension crisis.
People are getting exactly what they are voting for. We see the same thing at the Federal level. Trump campaigned on cutting taxes and increasing spending. I mean, his entire healthcare plan was “better coverage for everyone for much cheaper.” Voters want to have their cake and eat it too and politicians are more than willing to give them that in the short term.